The House of Wisdom: What a City Chooses to Value

In ninth-century Baghdad, Caliph al-Ma'mun built a library and research academy that gathered scholars of every faith and language to translate, debate, and expand the world's knowledge, from Greek philosophy to Persian astronomy to Indian mathematics. Harmonia traces how this deliberate openness produced algebra, medicine, and philosophy that shaped centuries to come, and how its slow closing under a later caliph began the decline long before Mongol invaders ever set the city's libraries ablaze in 1258. Transcript available at: https://harmonia.email/podcast-episode/house-wisdom-what-city-chooses-value Share and read comments: https://harmonia.email/podcast-comments?field_podcast_feed_value=harmonia_s_history&from_node=413